Monday, March 10, 2008 – Valley Village

Take Laurel Canyon out of Hollywood, up through the twists and turns and over the crest at Mulholland Drive, down the backside of things and out into the flats of the San Fernando Valley. As you pass Chandler you enter Valley Village, an unsettling place.

This is, of course, Metropolitan Pit Stop – they maintain a complete inventory of all 14,726 parts that Nash, Hudson and AMC Metropolitans need. They also have a museum, including the prototype Metropolitan station wagon, the only survivor of two built in 1956 by Pinin Farina in Italy, and the Metropolitan "Astra-Gnome" concept car (see this page). It's all very odd.

If all this means you need a beer, stop by the Ukrainian restaurant next door –

After a beer, or six or seven, drop this place around the corner, Film Roman, the animation studio founded by Phil Roman that produces the animation for The Simpsons and King of the Hill – Homer would understand.

After too may beers you should switch to public transportation on the corner –

If you wish to use any of these photos for commercial purposes I assume you'll discuss that with me. And should you choose to download any of these images and use them invoking the "fair use" provisions of the Copyright Act of 1976, please provide credit, and, on the web, a link back this site.

Technical Note:

Photographs after March 3, 2008, were taken with a Nikon D200 – or a Nikon D70 when noted. All previous photographs were taken with the D70.  The lenses used are (1) AF-S Nikkor 18-70 mm 1:35-4.5G ED, or (2) AF Nikkor 70-300 mm telephoto, or (3) AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 55-200 mm f/4-5.6G ED.  Photography here is modified for web posting using Adobe Photoshop 7.0.  The earliest photography in the archives was done with a Sony Mavica digital still camera (MVC-FD-88) with built-in digital zoom.

All text and photos, unless otherwise noted, Copyright © 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 - Alan M. Pavlik